


Reekfish

by rarmaster



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-05
Updated: 2016-02-05
Packaged: 2018-05-18 08:18:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5912158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rarmaster/pseuds/rarmaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To get to the Twilight Realm to stop Zant, they need the mirror shards. To get the mirror shards, they have to go to Snowpeak. To get to Snowpeak, they have to catch a fish. One particularly smelly fish.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reekfish

**Author's Note:**

> aka "rar's waaaaaay too hype about TPHD and realized she's only ever written one single (decent) twilight princess fic in her entire life and needed to fix that right now immediately"

“They said by these rocks, right?” Link asked, as he pulled himself out of the water. He shook out his tunic a little in attempt to make it dry faster, not that there was much point. This tunic, made of Zora scales, dried pretty quickly, and almost seemed to move better when wet, anyway.

“I think so,” Midna answered. She floated over to the rocks in question, circling them once. “Geeze, why don’t these Zoras put _labels_ on things? How is _anyone_ supposed to know just by looking that these are the ‘Mother and Child’ rocks?”

Link chuckled a little, pulling out his fishing rod. “It’s alright, I’m pretty sure these are the right ones,” he said. He wasn’t sure if Midna was teasing or complaining for the sake of complaining (or, she really couldn’t tell?) but it seemed pretty obvious to him, at least. They were close enough to each other to be considered “together”, and one was tall, the other short. Plus, the Zora guard he and Midna had talked to _did_ point straight at them two minutes ago. They were definitely in the right place.

“Let’s just hope these fish aren’t too hard to catch,” Midna sighed, floating back over to Link. She chose _not_ to hide in his shadow, too. She’d been choosing that a lot lately, Link thought, not that he minded. It was nice to have her company, _for real,_ now that she was not forced to hide in Link’s shadow all the time.

Of course, they couldn’t do things like walk around Castle Town together. Midna, being who and what she was, would get too many weird looks. That was the nice thing about the Zoras. They didn’t ask questions. A wolf goes behind a pillar, a Hylian comes out? No one looks twice. Strange imp girl accompanying a Hylian? No comment at all.

It was nice.

“Please, Midna,” Link said, as he flashed her a proud grin. “You’re looking at Ordon’s best fisherman—I can catch _anything_!”

“Three hours struggling with a Hylian Loach say otherwise,” Midna sang. She rested an arm against his shoulder and smiled toothily at him. He sneered.

“ _Lure_ fishing is different than _bobber_ fishing, Midna!” he protested. He’d push her off, but there was no point in that. Not like it mattered, either—none of her weight was actually going into him. “Besides, I caught it in the end, didn’t I? So, _HA!_ ”

Link triumphantly cast his line into the water. To himself, he thought that this _better_ work and he _better_ be able to catch one of these damn fish, because otherwise he’d feel even worse about taking one of Prince Ralis’s earrings to use as bait—never mind that it was a gift, he still felt bad—and what was even the point of taking it if _he couldn’t use it._ Maybe he’d give the earring back, once the job was done. If… the prince still wanted it, that was. Who’d want a used earring back? No one, probably, so—

“Link! _It’s bobbing._ ”

Midna’s voice startled him so bad he nearly dropped the fishing rod. He managed to save that, but, the fish got away.

Link glared daggers at Midna, even though it wasn’t technically her fault. Midna just giggled and smiled that grin of hers; a perfect combination of pride in herself, mischief, and teasing all at once. She rolled her eyes dramatically. Her smile did not budge.

“What happened to ‘I can catch anything’, huh?” she asked. “I was right. Mr. Best Fisherman of Ordon is a _fake!_ ”

“I can’t fish if you’re _bugging me!_ ” Link protested, a smile of his own threatening to break through his glare. He hated that. He wouldn’t give Midna that satisfaction! It was _her_ fault he’d missed the fish. (No it wasn’t.) (He wouldn’t admit that, either, though.)

“I say bonus points if you can manage to catch it _while_ I’m bugging you,” Midna said, leaning against him again.

Link did push her off, this time. “And, I say now isn’t the time for games,” he argued. “We have to go get that mirror shard that’s in Snowpeak before something _bad_ happens. If they’re any bit as bad as the Fused Shadows—”

“I know, I know,” Midna sighed, with another roll of her eyes. She wasn’t smiling anymore. “I’ll leave you to your fishing. Don’t mind me.”

There was a sting of bitterness in her voice, and Link glared a little at it. He was _right._ It wasn’t like he was fishing for leisure, now. He was only doing this to get some dumb scent, and it’d taken them long enough to even figure out they needed it! Midna didn’t have to get so grumpy because he didn’t want her distracting him.

Then again… Link supposed it wouldn’t have hurt to take her up on the challenge just once. Ten minutes weren’t really going to make that much difference—whoever had had this mirror shard had had it long enough to do damage already. Oh well. It was too late now. Midna had already made herself comfortable: sitting in mid-air, humming to herself, pretending to examine her fingers. Link cringed, realizing that. He’d definitely upset her, then.

She’d gotten used to her imp form after all this time, and would admit it had its uses, but for the most part she still hated being this way. She avoided looking at herself at length when at all possible. Pretending to examine fingernails she no longer had was a clear sign she was upset.

Link sighed and opened his mouth to say something, to apologize—but then the line tugged. He wasn’t going to miss this fish, not after all the fuss he’d made about it.

He threw his weight back, tugging the fishing rod and fighting with the fish until… there!

What caught his attention first about the fish was not its size or its shining red scales. It was the _smell._ The moment it popped out of the water, a foul stench filled the air. Foul, Link said, even though he regularly dealt with goat dung.

“Yuck!” Midna exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Link agreed, as he held it flopping in the air. His face crinkled on reflex. “Uh…” He held the fish towards Midna. “You’ll have to hold this while I transform.”

Midna recoiled. “What? _Gross_! I’m not touching that thing!” After thinking for a second, she fumblingly added: “Besides, _I’m_ the one who makes you transform. Without someone to shove that shadow crystal into your skull—”

“ _Midna I can’t hold a fish while I’m transforming into a wolf_.”

“Can’t you just drop it on the ground?”

“I don’t want it getting it away!”

“Smelling it as a Hylian isn’t enough?” Midna asked, groaning a little.

“Trust me, it’ll smell completely different as a wolf!” Link assured her. “And, probably a thousand times worse. But if we want to get through that blizzard…”

Midna glared at him, but Link stood firm, waving the fish in her direction. She seemed to be in a better mood, at least, assuming the look on her face was because of the smell and not because she was still upset. When she realized Link wasn’t going to relent, she let out a huffy breath.

“ _Fine_ ,” she said, still glaring. She transformed her hair into the familiar giant hand, and used that to pluck the fish out of Link’s grasp. Then, from wherever she kept it, she produced the crystalized piece of shadow. “Hold still,” she told Link, smiling a little cruelly.

Link squeezed his eyes shut. It was always easier that way. Neither of them bothered to check for Zoras, but, again, it wouldn’t matter if the Zoras saw. They wouldn’t say anything about it. They hadn’t said anything yet!

Once Link had got the scent and transformed back into a Hylian, Midna chucked the fish back into the water as hard as she could.

It ended up hitting a Zora in the head.

And, that… _that,_ a Zora might complain about.

“Uh, we better get moving,” Link said, hastily reaching to tie up his fishing rod. “Quick.”

“Agreed,” Midna said, and she darted to hide in his shadow.

**Author's Note:**

> 


End file.
